Sierra 3, Charlie 3, Foxtrot 3 and Alpha 4, Day 5: Cooper Island Beach Club

Written and edited by Allie Faulkner

Day 5

This morning we awoke early and the sun was already shinning. We had an extra pep in our step and sparkle in our eye, excited for the day ahead. We had a filling breakfast buffet and then the open water divers, advanced open water and fun divers got ready to go diving.

The rest of us non-divers prepared to go sailing. Some of us hoped on the Colgate and got to sail it to our destination! There were so few non-divers that we all got to sail on Pom ‘Do together. We were a relaxed crew that enjoyed the peaceful sail. We sailed upwind to Cooper Island Beach Club. While underway the captain taught a quick drop lesson and talked about the importance of knowing this in case of an emergency ever arose. We were all sad to see the sail end as we reached our destination because it was so relaxing. We picked up a mooring ball at Cooper where we would stay for the night and the returned to our boats.

Once we were back on our home boats, our divers and the people on the Colgate rejoined us. We started to prepare a quick, simple and delicious lunch of grilled cheese and tomato soup. Once we had our fill, the open water divers, discovery scuba divers and fun divers got to go diving again! The rest of us prepared to go to shore for the afternoon.

Once the divers were on the dive boat or the dock, the rest of us headed to shore for a plethora of activities and shore time. We were able to go wakeboarding, tubing on poparazzi, kayaking, stand up paddle boarding and snorkeling. We were also able to go shopping in the boutique and were able to buy ice cream and other treats in the coffee shop. The homemade ice cream from the resort was delicious!

After a hot and fun afternoon we all headed back to our boats. We put away our things and began to prepare dinner. The people on dinner prep worked away at making an amazing chicken stir fry. We all raved over how tasty it was while we starred out at the breathtaking Caribbean sunset.

As dinner and boat clean got started, the advanced open water and fun divers got ready for a night dive. We saw octopus and other cool fish that come out at night! Once the divers returned we all had boat meeting. We did a more serious boat meeting, stilling talking about how our days went but we also had a navigation lesson. We learned how to read a chart, plot coordinates and way-points, about dead reckoning, and the difference between true and magnetic north. With our brains full of knowledge, we turned in for the night to let the information soak in and to rest up for another exciting day tomorrow.